Automatic manufacturing strategy determination for a part can be desirable when fully automating part manufacture. However, automatically determining the manufacturing strategy cannot be accomplished by simply automating a previously manual process. This is because conventionally, the manufacturing strategy (including the selection and order of machine use, the feature manufacturing order, the toolpath determination, and other strategy parameters) is uniquely created by an experienced machinist for each part to be manufactured. The guidelines used by individual machinists not only vary across machinists, but also cannot be applied globally to a majority of part manufacture. Furthermore, these guidelines are not amenable to optimization for a manufacturing parameter, such as time (e.g., machine run time, time to delivery, etc.), cost, or material use. Thus, there is a need in the automated manufacturing field to create a new and useful system and method for automated manufacturing strategy determination. This invention provides such improved/new and useful system and method.
Additionally, conventionally, the user operating the machine is the one who programmed the machine. This user therefore has an inherent understanding of the intended process, and can immediately identify errors in the machining process, such as whether the part is arranged in its intended orientation, whether the intended toolpath has been executed, or whether a software update to the machine has changed how the machine is interpreting the machine code. In contrast, when part manufacture is fully automated, the operator is no longer the machine programmer, particularly in instances where the machine program is automatically generated. This disconnect leads to a feedback void—the operator is no longer capable of identifying if and when things go wrong. This problem is further compounded when different machines are used interchangeably, because different machines interpret the same code differently. Thus, there is a need in the automated manufacturing field to create a new and useful system and method of reducing or eliminating manufacturing errors, and a new and useful system and method of enabling interchangeable machine use. This invention provides such improved/new and useful system and method.